Consumer Response has essentially been an independent office housed in the Operations Division. As such, its research on consumer complaint trends has been equally available to all divisions and offices, including, for example, Supervision, Enforcement and Fair Lending; Research, Markets and Regulations; and Consumer Education and Engagement. Is this transfer designed to diminish the Consumer Response unit’s important role in helping all units of the agency collect and understand the ongoing complaints that consumers raise? What benefit does this transfer provide consumers and will this relocation affect the Complaint unit’s budget?

Fair Lending is a fundamentally important part of the work of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and of a financial system that works for families and communities. The Office of Fair Lending and Equal Opportunity needs the authority, the resources, and the connections to key levers of change to do its job.

Charging that the single director structure — which helps make the bureau an effective consumer regulator, if that director is committed to the public interest — was unconstitutional evolved into a mainstay of attacks from Wall Street, predatory lenders, and their friends in Congress and the administration.

Americans for Financial Reform and the Center for Responsible Lending hosted a press call today with leading experts to discuss two ongoing lawsuits concerning the CFPB director and the administration’s attempts to destroy the CFPB’s independence.

Fighting to preserve the mission of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau resonates strongly with an American public that is still feeling the effects of the Wall Street-induced recession and its continuing ripoffs of its own customers, according to a new polling memo.